Creative Writing

This is a Connected Degree

Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course.

Overview

Charles Dickens was born here, Sherlock Holmes was created here, H.G. Wells travelled here in his ‘time machine’, and many tourists wander our timeless shores inked with seaside tales. If there could be an ideal birthplace for your creative writing career, let it be Portsmouth.

Every lecture, seminar, and event on our Creative Writing degree course will inspire you to develop your writing voice across various media, from stories and poetry to plays and screenplays. Learn about the theory behind the art of writing and discover the history of storytelling and narrative, guided by a team of industry and research experts spanning writing, media and performance. You can also broaden your writing experience by studying abroad and going on an optional professional placement.

By the end of the course, you’ll have the versatile writing skills to take you to any career destination within creative and communication fields.

Course highlights

• Take part in Portsmouth’s annual Comic Con for the latest developments in creative writing and literature, popular culture, fan communities, and technology – course lecturers and students are panelists

• Build your writing portfolio by contributing to our course blog The Eldon Review, local news zine Star & Crescent, and our Student Union newspaper The Galleon

• Collaborate with staff on innovative research projects to enhance your own practice, such as Ink:Well, Lifewriting for Well-Being, and Pens of the Earth

• Get insight into the current writing scene by attending guest lectures from industry professionals – past ones include Andy McNab, Francesca Beard, and Suzi Feay

• Gain valuable professional experience by taking an optional placement

• Spend a year or a semester studying abroad to discover another culture and way of learning

• Learn a new language with our extra-curricular Institute-Wide Language Programme to improve your abilities and earn credits

Careers and opportunities

Writing is one of the oldest forms of communication and has evolved and transformed over the ages. It thrives more than ever in our modern world where traditional and digital communication coexist, with its outlets continuing to expand. Spoken communication – such as storytelling, teaching, and poetry – is also on the rise.

After graduating from our Creative Writing degree course, you’ll be poised for numerous roles that rely on the powers of communication and the written word.

You can also continue your studies at postgraduate level and venture into research.

Graduate areas

Areas graduates from our Creative Writing courses have worked in include:

• creative writing (prose, poetry, script)

• advertising and marketing

• arts and events management

• local and community broadcasting

• teaching

• stand-up comedy

• travel industry

Graduate roles

Roles graduates from our Creative Writing courses have gone onto include:

• novelist

• poet

• playwright

• teacher

• copywriter

• journalist

• theatre manager

• editorial assistant

You'll get help and support from our Careers and Employability service in finding your first role and for 5 years after you graduate.

Year 1
Core modules in this year include:

• Professional Writing (20 credits)
• Telling Tales (20 credits)
• The Short Story: Murder, Madness and Experimentation (20 credits)
• Tips, Tricks, Techniques (20 credits)
• True Stories (20 credits)
• Writing for the Film and TV Industries (20 credits)

There are no optional modules in this year.

Year 2
Core modules in this year include:

• Creative Writing and Critical Thinking (20 credits)
• Finding Form - Fiction (20 credits)
• Finding Form - Nonfiction (20 credits)

Optional modules in this year include:

• Comic Book Industries (20 credits)
• Engaged Citizenship Through Interdisciplinary Practice (20 credits)
• Feature Writing and Media Research (20 credits)
• Finding Form - Speculative Fiction (20 credits)
• Investigative Journalism (20 credits)
• Playwriting and Text for Performance (20 credits)
• Press and Public Relations (20 credits)
• Professional Experience (20 credits)
• Screenwriting (20 credits)
• Specialist Journalism (20 credits)
• Student Enterprise (20 credits)
• Transmedia Narratives and Strategies (20 credits)

Year 3
Core modules in this year include:

• Creative Writing Dissertation (40 credits)

Optional modules in this year include:

• Advanced Screenwriting (20 credits)
• Cultures of Consumption (20 credits)
• Finding Form - Fact and Fiction (20 credits)
• Global Journalism and Human Rights (20 credits)
• Magazines: Print Media in a Digital World (20 credits)
• Media Fan Cultures (20 credits)
• Representing Science in the Media (20 credits)
• Researching Animation (20 credits)
• Studying Comedy (20 credits)
• Writing Project (With Publishing) (20 credits)

Placement year (optional)
On this course, you can do an optional work placement year after your 2nd or 3rd years to get valuable experience working in industry. We’ll help you secure a work placement that fits your situation and ambitions. You’ll get mentoring and support throughout the year.

We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies.

Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry and some optional modules may not run every year. If a module doesn’t run, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.

You’ll be assessed through:

• short stories
• a novel in progress
• a screenplay
• a collection of poems
• a magazine pitch
• public relations campaign
• reports
• a research portfolio
• examinations
• dissertation/project

You’ll be able to test your skills and knowledge informally before you do assessments that count towards your final mark.

You can get feedback on all practice and formal assessments so you can improve in the future.

The way you’re assessed may depend on the modules you select. As a guide, students on this course last year were typically assessed as follows:

• Year 1 students: 100% by coursework
• Year 2 students: 12% by written exams, 5% by practical exams and 83% by coursework
• Year 3 students: 100% by coursework